Mysuru blast: Tamil Nadu men chargesheeted

Chennai: NIA has filed the chargesheet against three men from Tamil Nadu belonging to Base Movement, an alleged terror group, before a special court in Bengaluru for triggering an explosion in court premise in Mysuru on August 1, last year.

According to a press release from NIA, the agency arrested five people and chargesheets were filed against N. Abbas Ali, 28, founder of Base Movement, of Madurai,  Samsun Karim Raja, 23 of Madurai, and  Dawood Sulaiman, 23, of Palavakkam, Chennai.

The NIA said that the investigation has revealed that the explosion of the bomb at a public toilet on Mysuru court premises was carried out by Base Movement as part of a larger conspiracy which includes sending threatening letters to various jails, senior government functionaries, a newspaper office and the French consulate, besides carrying out blasts at five different court premises in South India.

As per the plan the group had triggered the explosions in a gap of seven months starting with Chittoor court premises in Andhra Pradesh on April 7, 2016, then at Kollam court premises in Kerala on June 15, 2016, followed by the Mysuru court premises in Karnataka on August 1, 2016, later at Nellore court premises on September 12, 2016 and at Malappuram court in Kerala on November 1, 2016. Except for Mysuru blast, the state police is investigating other cases.

What is Base Movement?
Investigations by the NIA revealed that Abbas Ali had formed the outfit Base Movement with the objectives of  international terror group Al-Qaeda. He had recruited four accused persons with a view to committing terrorist and anti-national activities.

The group was targeting the judiciary and had assembled improvised explosive devices and placed them in various court premises with the intention to terrorise people.

Though the agency is claiming that the outfit carried terror activities, the government has not yet banned Base Movement.